Silver Lining
by SummerCrystals
Summary: OC story, some unrequited Gin/OC. If you don't like, then do not read or review. Flames are not welcome. Twenty Truths about Mizutani Eiri, about who and what shaped her, and when respecting someone stops being enough.


**Authors Note: **This is based off of LJ's 20truths. It is about my Bleach OC, Eiri. It is unrequited Gin/OC, on my OC's part. Also, as I said in my profile, I try not to actually write Gin very much, because I'm terrified of doing him wrong. He looks and acts no differently than he does in canon, and treats Eiri as kindly as he treats everyone else from his division. Eiri simply sees someone entirely different.  
Please see my profile for more about Eiri, and flames are not appreciated. If you don't like my story, then do not review at all, but please do not flame. Thank you.

_**Silver Lining**_

**Twenty Truths about Mizutani Eiri**

1.) Mizutani Eiri was proud when she was placed in third division. She just barely made twentieth seat, but she worked hard and strove to improve. Soon she was third seat, and she stood proudly, near the top of the ladder, honored to be able to work so directly under Ichimaru Gin. (While other people hated and were afraid of Gin, Eiri saw him as a good and kind man who should be admired and looked up to.)

The day she made it into the Gotei 13, she swore to serve Ichimaru Gin. The day she made third seat, she swore that she would always be in third division.

2.) Eiri developed opinions of the other divisions and their captains fast.

She didn't like first division, but she respected them. They were powerful, yes, but she didn't like the vibe they gave out. Even their taichou she didn't like, but he was powerful and definitely deserved respect.

Second division was a division to be looked up to and respected, especially their taichou, Soi Fong. She was strong and powerful, and deserved admiration and respect. Eiri held a very high opinion of second division.

Third division was the best, of course; they were the cleverest, the fastest…Eiri saw third division as the brightest star in Soul Society. Ichimaru Gin, naturally, was beyond the best taichou. He surpassed them all, in strength, in speed, in intelligence, in everything that the mind could think of. Everything about third division was the best.

Unlike a lot of Soul Society, she greatly respected fourth division. Without them, many of their best Soul Reapers would have been killed. Their taichou, Unohana-san, was kind and strong in her own way.

Eiri loved fifth division. They were a kind and compassionate group, but still extremely strong. She also loved Aizen-taichou and Momo-fukutaichou. Aizen was kind and good at heart, a perfect captain for fifth division and even more of a perfect captain for Momo-chan. Momo-fukutaichou was one of her best friends. She loved them.

Sixth division was one of the worst. She positively hated Byakuya-taichou, and Renji-fukutaichou was hardly better. Sure, she did hate Byakuya-taichou, but all fukutaichous should respect their taichous.

Seventh division, she really didn't know. Them _or_ their captain. She hardly ever saw someone from their division, and their taichou kept his face hidden. So, when asked, she said she respected them. It was her fallback to all questions she didn't know the answer to.

Eighth division people were nice people on a whole, but Eiri didn't interact with them too often. Shunsui-taichou she didn't like at all. He was too lazy and dumped all his work on poor Nanao-san, (whom she _did_ like) but she had to admit, they made a perfect couple.

Ninth division's captain annoyed Eiri to no end. She didn't know what it was, but something about him bugged her until she was ready to scream. Because of this, she tended to try and avoid anyone from ninth division.

Tenth division she respected in the same way she respected second division, but on a lesser degree. Hitsugaya-taichou she respected in the same way she respected Soi Fong-taichou, but on a lesser degree. That's about it.

Eleventh division was right up there next to sixth division. She hated their bloodlust for battle and death, and she hated their tendency to go out and get drunk. And the fact that Zaraki-taichou had never asked his Zanpakuto it's name disgusted her to no end.

Twelfth division's captain was her least favorite of _all_ of the Gotei 13's captains. She hated him and was disgusted by him and feared him all at the same time. But she had seen some of his people and his fukutaichou, and on a whole she pitted those in twelfth division.

Eiri liked thirteenth division. She liked their personalities and their fighting styles. She liked their taichou. He was kind and strong, and if his disease ever killed him, the whole of Soul Society would have suffered a great loss.

Over all, Eiri is very happy to be in the Gotei 13.

3.) Eiri likes to meddle in people's love lives. She really, really, loves it. She has repeatedly tried to get 11th's fourth seat to ask Madarame Ikkaku out on a date. She tries to puzzle out how to make Nanao get over herself so that when Shunsui-taichou asks her out, she'll agree. (She doesn't really thinks she needs to do anything to help Momo-chan. Even if nothing does happen, she is happy simply working under Aizen-taichou. They are perfect as they are.)

When someone suggests that Eiri likes Ichimaru Gin, she turns red and protests that she would never, _never_ disrespect Ichimaru-taichou that way.

4.) Eiri's Zanpakuto, Tsukinaku, didn't tell her his name until she meet Ichimaru Gin. She never told anyone that she hadn't even learned her Zanpakuto's name, not wanting to appear weak. When Gin addressed the entire division, she trained long into the night, trying to find the strength to call out it's name, until finally, she cried out her Zanpakuto's name, and she saw a man, white skinned and dressed in long flowing white robes, with a kind face and silver hair.

Tsukinaku is always called when Eiri cries _Seek_, _Tsukinaku_.

5.) When Eiri was in the Academy, she was not like she is now. Sure, she paid attention and worked hard, but she had a problem with authority and didn't like doing what people told her to do. She really didn't respect anyone.

When she was accepted into the Gotei 13, Ichimaru Gin changed that. She put respect above everything. It was the most important thing to her, now. She would follow his orders happily and never even think about disobeying them.

When asked, she says this: "Ichimaru-taichou has taught me everything that I know."

And she says it with pride in her tone and her head held high.

6.) Eiri knows that she shouldn't be so obsessed with making people end up with each other. Soul Society is in the middle of a war, she should be out fighting. But the ryoka have disabled so many of Soul Society's best Shinigami. What chance does a mere 3rd seat have?

And anyway, you never know how much time you have left. You, or someone you love, could die at any minute. Eiri wants people to find love before that happens, so she devotes her energy to trying to make people happy.

7.) Late at night, Eiri hangs out with a girl from 11th division. At first she detested it, but by now it's rather fun. Sometimes she'll make fun of Ichimaru-taichou, but that stops once air is cut off.

She often tells stories about when she and some of the other people in 11th go out and get drunk. Eiri laughs and marvels at their stupidity, but she has fun all the same.

8.) Eiri has never had alcohol. She never plans to. But even if she does, she swears that she will never get drunk. And she will never, ever, _ever_, get drunk in front of Ichimaru-taichou.

9.) Eiri hates Izuru. She thinks him weak and incapable. She has no idea how he even passed the exams, let alone became fukutaichou. She thinks that just about anyone would be a better fukutaichou than him.

And so she goes home laughing when she sees someone vomit in his hair through a window into a bar.

10.) Eiri is very simple. She knows four things for certain: _I fight for Ichimaru-taichou, I live to protect those I love, third division is best, _and _Ichimaru-taichou is a good man. _

11.) When Aizen is killed, Eiri is shocked and angry. She knew that it must have been one of the Ryoka (she heard the rumors that Momo had blamed Gin, but that was utterly impossible) and she hated herself, because she had just been sitting here doing _nothing_ but talking about people's love lives.

But at the same time, she was filled with horrible, unstoppable rage (because Aizen had been a good and kind man, and they had no _reason_ to kill him!) and she wanted nothing more than to take up Tsukinaku, storm out into the Seireitei and _kill every single one _of those _bastards_.

12.) Eiri didn't see Aizen's body until later. She only heard the news.

When she did see his body, she is racked with hopelessness.

13.) Eiri joined the Academy not even after a year after she came to the Soul Society. She wanted to be able to do something, to fight for good and make people's lives better. She wasn't the top of her class, but she was still very high. She graduated, and she was happy that she could finally become part of the Gotei 13.

She studied for the exam weeks in advance, and passed with flying colors. When she joined the Gotei 13, she felt like she could take on anything. Every fight was exciting and made her feel special.

By this time, when she fought, she merely fought.

14.) At the execution site of Kuchiki Rukia, Eiri did not feel at ease. She feels that something is off and wrong, and perhaps she _shouldn't_ be executed. She hates that feeling. She waits, and hopes that soon the feeling will pass.  
When the orange haired ryoka shows up, Eiri almost believes that he is a good person. Relief washes through her, until she remembers Aizen's body pinioned to the wall.

Hate washes through her, but then she sees his face, and thinks that it must have been one of the other ryoka.

15.) When Eiri saw Aizen Sousuke alive, she was frozen in place, because she didn't know what was going on.

16.) She was there when it all went down. When Rukia Kuchiki was almost killed, when Soul Society turned on itself, when the ryoka showed up. She was lost in the tide, not knowing who to fight and who to protect, until the three captains left, and she was screaming silently because it didn't matter that she was lost anymore.

17.) When Aizen, Kaname, and Gin left Soul Society, Eiri was torn to bits. She went out and drank herself sick, letting despair and disbelief and agony rule her body.

People sat and watched her, and held her, and let her cry and vomit and scream until her stomach was empty and her face was soaked and her throat was hoarse, because what else can friends do?

They try to tell her that he had never really been the man Eiri had thought he was, that he had lied to her and deceived her, and in the dark room Eiri whispered: _it wasn't a lie, it wasn't a lie, it wasn't a lie…_until, all alone at last, she cried until she could cry no more, mourning alongside with Hinamori Momo and Kira Izuru and Hisagi Shuuhei.

18.) Eiri met the ryoka after Soul Society had quieted down. They were actually okay people, nice and strong and good at heart.

She couldn't concentrate on the conversation.

19.) Eiri hates a few things. She hates bombs. Explosions, fire, mass death, that kind of thing. See, she died in an explosion. When America bombed Hiroshima with the atomic bomb. She died terrified. When she came to the Soul Society, whenever she saw an explosion, she had to restrain her initial instinct to run.

She hates ignorance. She has to know exactly what is going on around her, what is happening, and why it is happening. When she died in the real world, she had no idea what was going on. It was unlike all of the other bombs she had lived through. When she dies this time around, she is going to know exactly what is happening and why it's happening.

And she hates being alone. Being abandoned. Her mother and brother and father were all taken by the war long before she was, and she died alone and afraid. She had to live with no one and nothing, just a scared little girl with no one to take care of her. Her greatest fear in the Soul Society is that her friends, and those she calls family, will leave her all alone again.

She never had to fear that Ichimaru-taichou would leave her, because she would always be by his side.

20.) Eiri belongs with third division. She always has, and up until recent events she thought that she always would. Eiri also belongs beside Ichimaru Gin. She swore that she would always serve him. And up until recent events, she could do both.

And now she no longer can.

The night the three captains left Soul Society, she went out and got drunk. She cried out, "_why didn't he take me with him?_" A friend told her she didn't want that, that it was a dark path that would take her away from her friends and family and most likely to death.

But she will walk where she walks, and she will forever walk behind Ichimaru Gin.

She will walk the path that leads to evil ways, and loss, and most likely death, (because he doesn't need her, but she won't, _can't_, believe that, so she will serve him anyway) away from her friends and her comrades and Soul Society, towards a man who has deceived her and tricked her and used her, because she has loved him since she first laid eyes on him.

Eiri will choose the silver path.

((by: xLMLx))


End file.
